More Rocketry

It was a fine day to break out one of last Christmas' presents, a model rocket, and go to Beacon Memorial Park to launch it. 

The first picture is of one we've had since last year. This was the last one we fired off, and I put too strong of an engine in it. It sailed over 1000 feet then drifted far away to the southwest. 

You can see the exhaust gasses starting to flare out.

Gone.

This yellow one, below, is the one I gave Finn for Christmas last year. In the nose there are three blades that fan out and cause the nose cone to drift to the ground like a helicopter. The fuselage and fins drift with the typical parachute.

The problem was that the exhaust that is supposed to push the nose cone off and the parachute, too, was not strong enough or I packed the 'chute too tightly. The first time the nose cone came off and functioned just fine. But the 'chute failed to deploy and the fuselage fell straight into the dirt. The second time, neither deployed. The rocket is pretty beat up at the moment. But it was fun.

We only did these two launches before a concerned parent asked us to move. He was afraid that his little league game or whatever was going on would get hurt somehow. It was about 1000 ft from us, and the last rocket we fired drifted high over them, but the first two went in the opposite direction.